The Dynamic Duo!

Halloween was fun for me as a kid, and it's even more fun now that I have kids of my own.  And I even got my wish: Little Guy and Little Miss wore coordinating costumes.  The Dynamic Duo enjoyed Halloween.

I took them around our neighborhood as a very subtle Catwoman.  Notice Little Miss's fancy black dress shoes. She put them on herself, and these were not the best choice for walking around the 'hood.  Can't blame the girl for wanting to look good, though!

We were one of the first groups out and they practically ran from door to door.

The Little Guy was very good about saying "Trick or Treat," "thank you," and "Happy Halloween."  Little Miss knocked on doors, while saying "Knock knock." She started to say "YOOOUUUUUUUUUUU" at the end of each visit, and I'm going to go ahead and count that as an attempt at "Thank you."

One of our neighbors dressed up his dog as a sheriff...

...and even had a real bat outside his door!  It was really neat.  Now, I need to think of how I can incorporate real bats into my decor (and environment) for next year. Bats are a good thing!

Remember those black dress shoes?  Little Miss decided those weren't working for her and tried to make me carry her after house #7, and we still had 12+ more houses to go.  Um, sorry sweetie, but no.  We went back home, changed her into some sensible tennis shoes and grabbed the umbrella stroller just in case her shoes weren't the problem. She rode in in for a few houses, but then decided to push the stroller the rest of the way.  I guess the problem was the shoes after all.

We met up with neighbor Adithi and Little Guy had fun comparing treats with her.

After we were done trick-or-treating, Little Guy and Little Miss enjoyed the rest of the evening by handing out candy to all kids who came to our door.

We enjoyed the pumpkins for a while, but as it got darker and colder and the crowds dwindled, we decided to head inside.

Little Miss entertained us with a Jimi Hendrix-like version of "Rockin Robin"...

...while Little Guy, fueled by two fun size candy bars and one sucker, ran around the living room yelling, "LOOK AT ME I'M A BAT I'M FLYING AROUND IN YOUR HOUSE BECAUSE I'M A BAT AND I LIKE TO FLY."  Good times!

What a night!  I hope you and yours had a wonderful, safe and fun Halloween.

Now, on to November and Thanksgiving!

A Halloween treat!

Happy Halloween, my dearies!

I hope to have too-cute-for-words pictures of my kiddos in their Halloween garb up soon, but in the meantime, I have a super-sweet treat for you.

By now, you all know of my love for Darling Clandestine perfume and earrings.  For the new folks, Darling Clandestine is my friend Evonne's Etsy store, and everything in it is AMAZEBALLS.  Evonne often posts discounts for her items on the Darling Clandestine facebook page, and today she shared a whopper: 

"Full-sized bottles and solids, buy one, get one. TODAY ONLY. Type "Everybody scream!" in your message to seller, plus your choice of free perfume."

Isn't that awesome?  After I take the kids trick-or-treating, I'm heading over to Darling Clandestine for some treats of my own.  And because this deal is so good--essentially, it's a 50% off coupon--I'm going to get started on my Christmas shopping as well. 

It's difficult to buy perfume, and darn near impossible when you can't smell it before you purchase it. But trust me when I say that Evonne's creations are amazing.  My top five favorites are Step Right Up, Cloudswing, Circassian, Carny Wedding and Tilt-a-Whirl.  I love these, and I can guarantee you that I am wearing one of them every single day. You'll love them, too.

And if you're still having trouble buying perfume before smelling it, Evonne sells sample size vials at Darling Clandestine.  Buy some samples, find your favorites, and then become a fan on facebook to receive discount codes for future purchases.  If you are willing to take a leap of faith, then buy today using the "Everybody scream!" code, as this is the best discount I've ever seen her offer. 

Have a happy Halloween, and be sure to treat yourselves!

Candy concerns

For most people (mostly the under 12 set), Halloween is all about the candy and costumes come in at a distant second place. For me, Halloween is equal parts spooky decorations, family traditions, fun costumes and delicious candy.  Unfortunately, candy is usually my dilemma...I'm trying to find the perfect amount of candy to have on hand.  It's crucial to have just the right amount:  too little and we run out thereby disappointing adorable trick-or-treaters, too much and I end up eating it all and my butt gets bigger.  And no matter how much I buy each year, I always hope to have a few pieces left over for me. Just a few.

Buying candy might be the scariest part of Halloween for me.

This year, we have 335 pieces of candy for trick-or-treaters:

I sorted the candy by what the Big Guy and I like and what we don't like. The stuff we don't like gets distributed immediately (Whoppers, Milky Way, Three Musketeers, Baby Ruth, etc.).  

I reserved a good supply of what we do like (Snickers, Twix, Butterfinger, etc.) to distribute last. That way, if there's any leftover candy it will be the stuff we like. And by "a good supply," I mean I reserved a full 1/3 of our Halloween candy supply for us.  Like I said, I don't want to be stuck with too much candy leftover.

Of course, if enough trick-or-treaters are coming to our door, I'll give out our reserved candy.  But not before I pilfer my own kids' candy bags to give out the stuff I won't eat or don't want them to have. And not before making a quick check in the basement to see if there are any old birthday favors to give out. Or before I check the pantry to see if I have small packages of crackers or gum I can hand out to kids.  And not before I give out any candy left from last year's Halloween, and any loose change I may have around the house.  Just keeping it real! 

But, per my iron-clad rule about Halloween, trick-or-treaters not wearing costumes won't get anything at all:

Because if you come to my door on Halloween looking for candy but not wearing a costume, I don't consider that trick-or-treating. I consider that to be lazy youth looking for a sugar handout. 

Get a costume, slacker! 

And don't even get me started on the repercussions of ringing my doorbell before or after the official trick-or-treat times set by the city (4:00-7:30pm for Aurora).  That's when things really get scary!

Pumpkin picking

Last weekend we took the kids pumpkin picking. It was a very mild fall day and everyone enjoyed the outing.

The good folks at the pumpkin farm warned us that the harvest had been poor this year.  By the time we got there, the biggest pumpkins had been picked and most of the rest were claimed by bugs.  All I could think of when I looked at the rotting pumpkins was "Gosh, these would be perfect for my compost bin!"  But the Big Guy wouldn't let me put them in the wagon. Boo!

Little Guy and I happily traipsed through the fields looking for unblemished pumpkins.  It took a while, but we eventually found five small-to-medium size pumpkins that would work for our family.  I was really pleased that the Little Guy, without any reminder or assistance from me, remembered to pick out a pumpkin for Barley.

Little Miss was interested in the activity, but I think she was a bit intimidated by the tall weeds and grasses.  She didn't stray far from the wagon and was happy to jump back in when the pumpkins started arriving.

On the way back to the farm, we saw a black and orange caterpillar crawling on the ground.

Pumpkin picking was fun, but seeing this tiny creature might have been the highlight of the trip.

The kids were thrilled to "ooh!" and "aah!" over this bug for several minutes.  Good times!

Last year, the Little Guy and I went on our own to pick out pumpkins for the whole family.  Now that Little Miss is bigger, we've turned this into a tradition that the whole family can enjoy.  This weekend, we'll carve the pumpkins. While the kids can't help out too much because of their ages (giving a butcher knife to a 4 year old is never a good idea), that will change in a few years and pumpkin carving will become a tradition as well.

For basic pumpkin carving info, click here.  For great tips on carving pumpkins, click here.  Interested in making monogrammed pumpkins?  Click here.

Happy picking and carving!

Kids' crafts for Halloween

Lately, I've been finding a lot of inspiration for fun kid crafts on Pinterest. And just in time for Halloween, I found these great projects using hand and foot prints.  With MOM2 and neighbor Yogita's help, our kids got to turn their hand and foot prints into some fun Halloween art.

Using regular craft paint (which washed off those little hands and feet quite well), the kids made hand print spiders, foot print ghosts and hand print stems on pumpkins.  Now all they have to do is draw in the faces.

Check out my "Kids Crafts and Activities" board on Pinterest. There are lots of fun hand/foot print art ideas for animals, holidays, and special occasions.  This project went really well and the kids had a lot of fun...can you guess what we'll be doing when Thanksgiving comes around?

Happy kid crafting!

Martha Monday--Curtains and cookies

Halloween is one week away...I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. This is such a fun time of year, and it will be even more so for us because Little Miss is really getting into the holiday.  She is enjoying all the bat and spider decorations, and the Little Guy is teaching her to say "Trick or Treat." I doubt she'll learn by next Monday, but it is a real joy to watch them practice "trick-or-treating" around the house.

This weekend, I put up a Witch's Curtain.  Here is what Martha's Witch's Curtain looks like: 

Martha's Witch's Curtain is made from a heavy-duty garbage bag--you can find the instructions here. The only black garbage bags I had on hand are the super-duper-heavy-duty contractor's bags, so I used a  plastic tablecloth from the Dollar Tree.  Here's my Witch's Curtain:

It's not quite the same, but I like the effect.  I used plastic hooks to hang it, but tape was also necessary to secure it to the porch area.

And with that, I am officially done decorating for Halloween!

I also managed to bake a batch of Martha's Pumpkin Cookies with Browned Butter Icing this weekend:

The Little Guy and Little Miss helped.

I've blogged about these cookies before. The recipe makes a tremendous amount--it says six dozen, and I get about seven dozen cookies each time I make it.  Also, the recipe calls for piping the batter onto the cookie sheet. I don't think this is necessary. I've tried both piping the batter and plopping it onto the sheet with a spoon, and both methods work equally well. Save yourself the clean-up and just use a spoon.

Only one more week until one of the funnest days of the year!  Happy haunting!

Spooky!

My house is almost entirely decorated for Halloween. My "Girls Night Out" painting is over the mantel along with all sorts of witchiness.

I suspended my straw witch just under the mantel with some sewing thread and sticky hooks. 

New to the spooky setting this year are mice and raven silhouettes from Martha Stewart Crafts. 

The mice are running up and down the hallway and partially up the stairs. The ravens are gathered in the dining room.

My fun witch silhouette is in an upstairs bedroom. She's also from the Martha Stewart Crafts line. I scored all three silhouette packages at this year's Wilton tent sale.

 From the outside you can see the witch, the bats and all the lights.  I am loving how the decorations turned out this year!  Take a look on facebook to see the full show.

I have just one more project for the outside, and if all goes well this weekend I'll share it with you on Monday.  Happy decorating, and have a great weekend!